28 June 2017
 Categories: Industrial & Manufacturing, Blog

Many people think of glass blowing as an art form that is merely done as a hobby. It may surprise you, however, that people can actually make their living by doing glass blowing. If you are curious at all about glass blowing, here are three FAQs that will help you understand it better.

What Exactly Is Glass Blowing?

Simply put, glass blowing is taking pieces of molten glass and inflating it into a bubble. This is done with a tool called a blowpipe, which is sometimes referred to as a blow tube. There are three types of furnaces used in glass blowing:

• The furnace - this furnace contains the crucible, or the container that holds the molten glass and has the ability to withstand very high temperatures
• The glory hole - this furnace is where a piece of glass gets reheated while it is being worked with
• The lehr - also called the annealer, this furnace is used to slowly cool the glass, which keeps it from shattering or cracking

Besides a blowpipe, other tools commonly used include a punty rod, bench, tweezers, paddles, jacks, and shears.

How Do You Become a Glass Blower?

Glass blowers are also called glassmiths or gaffers. Many people become glass blowers so that they can create decorative objects, but they also make small bottles, stemware, and glassware. To become a professional glass blower, you will need a degree in fine arts along with a concentration in glass blowing. Being a glass blower requires patience, along with the ability to tolerate both heat and hazardous working conditions.

What Is Scientific Glass Blowing?

Some people choose to work in the scientific glass blowing industry where highly skilled glass blowers form an existing piece of glass into various shapes and dimensions as needed by scientific researchers, industrial laboratories, and government agencies. Scientific glass blowers work only with quartz and borosilicate glass. A professional scientific glass blower needs a strong understanding of science and also many years of experience in glass blowing.

Some of the things they create include tubing, rods, test tubes, microscope slides, and beakers. Along with the regular tools needed for glass blowing, a scientific glass blower uses a torch for much of its work. Glass blowers can look on the Internet for glass blowing quartz apparatus for sale that are needed to do their job.

Now that you understand glass blowing a little bit better, you can decide if this is a career you want to pursue. You can also invest in glass blowing quartz apparatus for sale.